Secrets in Shadow
by mikekk67
Summary: "In the mouth of an unnoticed shadow stood Garrett, a man of unmatched skill in the art of thievery and deception..." (An assasin finds Garrett and the hunt begins in the corrupt streets of the city between the Dark Age and the Metal Age)
1. Beneath the City

CHAPTER 1  
  
Beneath the City  
  
Brings the authority a city corrupt of vermin,  
  
Brings the master of the underground a market for your corpse,  
  
Brings the shadows a manfool playing both worlds.   
  
***************************************************  
  
A pale wind greeted the discarded papers on the coarse street pavement and sent them in a  
  
melody entranced dance in the dusty sky until they settled unknowingly onto the boot of a man.   
  
In the mouth of an unnoticed shadow stood Garrett, a man of unmatched skill in the art of  
  
thievery and deception. Thievery was never a stable job and the lone thief found himself in debt  
  
to his impatient landlord. A pity that so many should pass by him by on the streets and not even  
  
acknowledge his existence let alone know of the unsurmountable debt they had, in fact, owed  
  
him. Not a single day ever went by when Garrett did not think about how close Death's very  
  
grasp on him had been in his efforts in destroying the prophecy that of a God. Garrett, a silent  
  
and unknown prophecy written in the books of the Keepers was sulking right next to their very  
  
eyes everyday unnoticed, and yet they had no clue like the next cattle on a butcher's list. A waste  
  
of space is what humans were, overcrowding the corrupt city streets with a facade grin on their  
  
faces. They were fake and obeyed fake rules that of the their own corrupt brothers. That was the  
  
real crime. Never should Garrett commit a crime that reprehensible. His friends were the  
  
shadows who, unlike his human friends of the dead past, would never betray him. For a shadow  
  
was dark, invisible, and unnoticed which were all the traits that Garrett had acquired and trusted  
  
for survival. Trust was not an option and to trust anyone would mean he would be agreeing to  
  
death. Only your own self can be trusted and everyone else, the cattle that they are who are  
  
rounded up by their corrupt brothers, are nothing more than meaningless lairs, swindlers, whore  
  
on the corner, or a fool believing that there is hope in a world built on false hope.  
  
  
  
Garrett stood patiently as he waited for the three guards in front of the Burrick Pub to finish  
  
off their last sips of their fire water to leave for Lord Clyde's mansion. Garrett knew most of the  
  
guards in the city for he had been stealing the keys off their belts recently, keeping them for  
  
insurance in case he needed to get in the places he needed quickly. Garrett had established the  
  
Key to the City all in a weeks worth of routine thievery, stashing them under the plywood of his  
  
room. It was because of this that Garrett would be heading into a well guarded and supposedly  
  
secret underground meeting of the people with the real power in the city. They were a group who  
  
held an underground gambling network under the city streets which were open to any fool who  
  
thought they could make money fast. They practically owned the authorities who were bribed  
  
daily with gambling earnings. Getting the key, let alone knowing anyone with a key for the many  
  
entrances was near impossible. Their metallic doors obeyed no lock pick and Garrett was  
  
fortunate to have stumbled onto a guard with one of the few keys made. Who would had thought  
  
that a simple sly of hands in a random guard's pocket would cause his untimely death? With so  
  
few keys made to their underground gambling network, the guard who lost the key was beaten up  
  
until he bleed from his eyes because the risk of the key ending up in the wrong hands. The guard  
  
had been beaten so badly he could not find the strength to get up from the cold rough street floor.   
  
Unable to cooperate with their demands of getting up, they disemboweled his head and dragged it  
  
with them into the meat packing room.   
  
  
  
Garrett knew little of what sort of gambling went on but with so many people with so much  
  
money on them, Garrett would be getting his debt money and a little extra for later in no time.   
  
They were careless enough to go to such a place, it was only reasonable to steal the money away  
  
from them before the underground lords did. The three guards who had just disappeared from  
  
view left the Burrick Pub unguarded, much to a bartender's dismay as he did supply the guards  
  
with free liquor as they pleased. The bartender had left his post and when he did Garrett swiftly  
  
made his way into the bar. The lights were far too bright and Garrett felt uneasy but he knew he  
  
would make it to the nearby shadow before anyone would notice he was even there. Stepping  
  
into the shadow, Garrett seemed to have become one with it, his black cloak melding into the  
  
abyss and his stillness matching that of the it's form. Garrett took out the key from his belt  
  
pouch and placed it into the metal door that heartily accepted the key. With minimum noise, the  
  
thief crept into the crack of the door and closed it behind him. Before him was a staircase  
  
descending to the underground gambling network, no doubt. Garrett may have known the city  
  
streets and roofs better than anyone but the world under the city would be a challenge. Garrett  
  
was confident, however, and his hands grew impatient from their emptiness of the goods he  
  
would soon be partaking.  
  
  
  
Garrett's acute hearing sensed a large amount of people close by. The tapping of the thief's  
  
boots rippled off the stone floor and made slight echos in the long hallway. Sewers from above  
  
leaked water that dripped into a slow decent to the hallway's ground. A door plagued with  
  
splinters and rotting wood stood in Garrett's way.   
  
  
  
"Let's see what makes the people whisper, why the people look down when an underground  
  
Lord passes by, and what makes the guards bow down to their wishes," Garrett thought to  
  
himself. With his attack-ready sword in grasp just behind his cloak and a couple of flash bombs  
  
hanging from his belt, the thief was hardly worried of being subdued by any thugs that might  
  
come in his way. Garrett reached out for the door and opened it. 


	2. Under the City's Skin

CHAPTER 2  
  
Under the City's Skin  
  
Comes in a man full of hope,  
  
Leaves the man with severed hands,  
  
And the Underground Lords welcoming another to play  
  
**********************************************  
  
The door creaked slightly, allowing the minuscule amount of light to rip into the dark  
  
hallway. Garrett looked through the thin opening with his reliable mechanized eye and saw the  
  
large gathering of people in the room. There were mostly men who were gathered in a large  
  
circle observing something in the middle of the platform. The room was quite moist from the  
  
sewers nearby and the room was lighted by torches along the pillars.   
  
"Number 67," announced someone within the circle. The crowd cheered suddenly as if  
  
something had happened but there were too many people in the way and Garrett could see  
  
nothing. Garrett had no problem entering the large room because all the attention was directed  
  
towards one spot on the platform and everyone did not turn away from what was going on.   
  
  
  
The clever thief crept along the wall behind a pillar and reached for his water arrow. If he  
  
should extinguish the torch on the next pillar than he would have no trouble navigating about  
  
many corners of the room without notice. Garrett retrieved his bow and placed the water arrow  
  
on it. The water in the vial at the tip of the arrow swayed back and forth as he steadied himself  
  
for the right trajectory. With a quick release, the water arrow silently meet its target; the fragile  
  
water vial breaking onto the flames reduced the torch to a black hole that pulled in more shadows  
  
into the room of the over hyped men. Garrett put away his bow and slowly snook towards a  
  
better view of the excitement. To Garrett's dismay, it appeared as if no one had any valuables on  
  
them. This angered Garrett who expected to easily pickpocket most of the observers but soon he  
  
grew uneasy. It was not sensible for this many people to come with no money on them. Garrett  
  
looked around the room and saw six guards standing in front of a large metal caldron. Piled to  
  
the top of the pot was gold, jewels, and other valuables, enough money to support a family for a  
  
year. Garrett's instinct told him that the people's gambling money was in the pot and if that was  
  
the case than the true fortune was right there for the taking.   
  
  
  
The six guards did not move from their spot like statues and Garrett saw little hope in  
  
retrieving the wealth with ease. Garrett opened his mind to the possibilities surrounding him.   
  
Six guards stood near the caldron but only one was paying any attention to it as the others were  
  
watching the platform. The crowd gave another cheer and this time a ghastly scream was heard.   
  
The scream was of a man who was in immense pain and his echo was deep with anguish. Even  
  
the thief felt sorry for whomever it was who could scream with such ail. Out of the crowd a man  
  
walked out grasping his mouth. The dark warm blood trickled ever so elegantly from his chin as  
  
he moaned in pain. The amount of blood seemed quite excessive from any simple cut. Garrett  
  
looked closely to the man and noticed his two front teeth were missing. Gaping bloody holes  
  
spilt the blood carelessly onto the floor. The crowd moved slightly to let another man come out  
  
of the crowd and he dropped two shinny pieces of gold in the shape of teeth into the pot. It  
  
seemed the gambling that went on underground was quite extreme. The fool who lost his gold  
  
teeth left the room, leaving his rust odor blood drying on the floor. Garrett looked back to the pot  
  
and the six guards. Even though there was only one guard watching the caldron, it was all it took  
  
to get caught. Garrett could not risk it because the room was much too small for that kind of  
  
thievery. Garrett looked towards another torch that would kill all of the light near the caldron but  
  
that would be all too dangerous because the path the water arrow would take would be right in  
  
front of the guards view. Before Garrett could pull together the best possible solution he noticed  
  
one of the viewers in the crowd leave the group as if he did not want to be noticed. Dressed all in  
  
black and with a gleam in his eye familiar to Garrett, Garrett had a good feeling he was a thief as  
  
well.  
  
  
  
"I don't believe it, the bastard," Garrett muttered to himself. Another thief in the same room?   
  
A thief has rules that are not written but are understood among all thieves and one important rule  
  
was not to steal something another thief was planning to steal himself. The room became much  
  
more small and one thief too many. Just seeing the thief glance at the caldron with a twinkle in  
  
his eye made Garrett furious. Dealing with the guards and staying unnoticed was enough trouble  
  
but to have competition among fellow thieves was just out of the question. Seeing a two front  
  
battle brewing up, Garrett made sure he did not lose sight of the thief who did not want to be  
  
seen. He stuck to the shadows much like Garrett and had enough skill to stay hidden from the  
  
crowd but Garrett had little faith in him avoiding the notice of the guards who were ever so  
  
watchful. As the thief hide in the shadow he looked towards Garrett. The thief, seeing a very  
  
convenient dark corner, slowly crept towards where Garrett stood in wait. He crawled on all  
  
fours in effort to reach the shadows created by Garrett earlier.   
  
"I dare you go further," Garrett whispered to the thief who found a cold sharp blade resting  
  
upon his neck. "Who " he began as Garrett applied a slight addition of force onto the blade.   
  
"Speak softly unless you care for the guards to kill you instead," Garrett warned. The thief  
  
corrected his manner for the unseen voice who pressed a sword onto his vulnerable neck.   
  
  
  
"I am sorry, I did not see you," he said with much distaste in admitting his inferiority to  
  
Garrett. "You are a thief as well, no?" he asked, trying to move up from the ground only to find  
  
the blade staying exactly where it was. Garrett did not like the situation he faced. He could not  
  
operate if another thief was in the same room trying to steal the same item. Garrett could see no  
  
other option than to knock him out for the thief could easily get him caught. Taken by surprise,  
  
the thief moved out from under the sword and scurried back to his original dark corner in of the  
  
room in haste. Garrett commended the thief for his quick thinking and quick feet but his hate for  
  
the thief who he did not know began to grow. Garrett looked back towards the guards who  
  
remained still, but Garrett was all too experienced to fall for that. The guards had noticed the  
  
thief scurry across to the other side of the room indeed and like the well trained guards that they  
  
were, they remained still as if they did not notice. They looked one way but their gaze crept to  
  
the corner of their eyes towards the spot where the thief was hiding. The thief was well hidden in  
  
the shadow but the guards knew where he was. The foolish thief did not even notice the guards  
  
discovery and instead put more of his gaze onto Garrett. The poor thief squinted towards Garrett  
  
but Garrett knew from his distance he would not even see him. Garrett knew the guards would  
  
make their move soon. Suddenly Garrett realized what an advantage he would have if all the  
  
guards attacked the other thief. If they all went for him than Garrett would have the cauldron all  
  
to himself. An unguarded objective was all too rare for Garrett and the opportunity was too good  
  
to pass.   
  
  
  
Garrett saw that the thief had a bow in his hand which made Garrett move slightly around  
  
the  
  
pillar to get out of the way of any potential arrows. Garrett saw the thief looking in the shadow  
  
squinting, trying to find the strange voice who had been in the shadow with him earlier. The  
  
guards did not go forward to the thief but instead one left the group and went in a door. Garrett  
  
did not know why the guards did not move forward but the guard who left would soon return.   
  
  
  
Suddenly, to everyone's surprise, the door was kicked down and a fire arrow flied towards  
  
the poor thief. The fire arrow snapped the thief's bow out of his hand and pierced it onto the  
  
wood door. The flame from the arrow illuminated much of the room and Garrett quickly  
  
adjusted to the sudden change of light.   
  
"And who are you?" said the owner of the fire arrow to the thief who now stood weaponless  
  
in the brightest spot in the room.  
  
  
  
"I am nobody!" said the thief who held his hand which was cut from the arrow. "I have been  
  
watching you ever since you departed the game you fool. You are a thief, a low life tafer," said  
  
the man. The crowd looked at the thief, then to the man.   
  
  
  
The thief just stood there, sweating and shaking. "I will give you to the count of three to run,  
  
then I will kill you," he said ever so calmly. The thief gasped and looked at all the people who  
  
just stared at him back.   
  
  
  
"One,"  
  
  
  
The thief, as nimble as he had proven, opened the wooden door, quickly closed it behind him  
  
and his running footsteps were heard echoing down the hall.  
  
  
  
"Two,"  
  
  
  
The people in the crowd stared at the mysterious man who had his bow arched at the closed  
  
door.  
  
  
  
"Three," he said and just as the word was announced he released a metal arrow from his bow.   
  
The arrow was so quick and straight that Garrett was amazed that an arrow made of metal could  
  
move so flawlessly. The arrow exploded through the rotting wood of the door and a scream at  
  
the end of the hall echoed back. Garret did not need to see behind the door to know that the thief  
  
was dead. The man's aim was remarkable if not near impossible. The crowd of fools applauded  
  
his skill but he put his hand up in the air to announce something.  
  
  
  
"There is still one more thief in here, I am not done," he replied. Garrett's eyes widened.   
  
How was it possible? How could it be? The crowd applauded again and Garrett was suddenly  
  
found himself a target of a madman in a room too small to hide for much longer. 


	3. Cerris the Bounty Huntsman

CHAPTER 3  
  
Cerris the Bounty Huntsman  
  
Scampers the manfool in depraved allies of the urban world,  
  
Heeding to the familiar shadow,  
  
To be betrayed by his customary dark abyss,  
  
And to look up to see his foe cast his dark twin upon him   
  
****************************************************  
  
The crowd peered around the lighted underground room as they dared not move in fear of the  
  
mysterious man and the thief among them. The scruffy guards readied their swords but gave  
  
haste for the strangely accurate man to make the first move. Garrett remained calm as would any  
  
professional thief. Garrett could not wait for them to make the first move.  
  
  
  
"Where is the thief?" A man asked dumbfounded as he gave up looking around the dark  
  
room. The crowd, after much gazing around the silent room, all appeared to ask the same. The  
  
guards began to fan out from their post in front of the cauldron slowly.  
  
  
  
"That man is Cerris the Bounty Huntsman!" said one man from the crowd. "Cerris? I  
  
believe you not you drunk! He would not waste time in such a place as this," said a low voiced  
  
man who looked at the mysterious figure with the bow. "It is true! I am certain of it. That is  
  
Cerris," the other man insisted. "If that is true, than the thief in here stands no chance," the low  
  
voiced man said.  
  
  
  
Garrett realized that the shadows could not hide him for long. The only way out appeared to  
  
be the same door he came from, but the fire arrow still burned brightly on the door which began  
  
to inflame the old wood. It was as if everything was thought out perfectly.  
  
  
  
"Thief, I will give you to the count of three before I release my arrow," announced Cerris who  
  
did not move from his convenient spot.  
  
  
  
If there was too much light than Garrett would add more to escape. The thief would make  
  
his  
  
enemy his friend.   
  
  
  
"One," said Cerris.  
  
  
  
Garrett reached for his three flash bombs that hung on his belt and spread them in his hand  
  
like a hand of cards.  
  
  
  
"Two,"  
  
  
  
Garrett looked at the wooden door which was almost engulfed in flames and than peered ever  
  
so slightly from the pillar to view the guards edging closer and Cerris staring at the flaming door  
  
as if he knew the thief would try to run through the door.  
  
  
  
"Three,"  
  
  
  
Garrett sprinted for the door as he cast the three flash bombs quickly onto the floor. Garrett  
  
did not look behind him and made sure he only focused on the door. He knew the blinding light  
  
had just erupt. The extreme light that powered themselves into the eyes of everyone in the room  
  
were too bright for them to handle and their eyes gave way to closing and losing their focus.   
  
Everyone moaned from the pain of all three flash bombs which must have been more intense  
  
than a long stare at the sun itself. Garrett, grabbing the metal knob, bit down on the pain of the  
  
heating metal and opened the door and quickly closed it from behind. The moans of pain became  
  
muffled from the distance Garrett put between him and them. Garrett saw the thief just ahead of  
  
him standing up as if he was still alive but his legs dangled slightly like a puppet on strings. The  
  
metal arrow had sliced through his skull and pierced through the concrete wall, pinning the thief  
  
like a butterfly in a display case. Garrett could only grin at the scene. Then suddenly a pain  
  
aggravated Garrett that caused him to buckle as he ran for the exit. A metal arrow had scraped  
  
the thief's leg. Garrett looked behind him and then another arrow exploded out from the flaming  
  
door. Garrett crouched down and avoided it. The fleeing thief opened the door to the back of the  
  
Burrick Pub quickly with the key and closed it behind him.   
  
  
  
He heard, yet barely, Cerris laugh out, "Why do you run, Garrett? Come back here so we can  
  
finish what we started."  
  
  
  
Garrett, making his way out of the bar as quietly as possible, held onto his leg to make sure  
  
he did not leave his blood anywhere for someone to find. When he reached the dark allies of the  
  
city, Garrett was in his safe haven at last. With a late answer, Garrett replied,"I'll have to skip  
  
that one." 


	4. Gathering Information

CHAPTER 4  
  
Gathering Information  
  
Asks the curious of his quandary,  
  
Denied the knowledge of his wisdom,  
  
And the thirst for knowledge unwillingly becomes that of his enemy's blood  
  
*************************************************************  
  
The darkness enveloped the bleak and weary stars above the slumbering city streets. Garrett  
  
had taken to the abandoned and silent rooftops of the Thieve's Highway. A windy, dark,  
  
stealthy, and solitary path of the flat toped buildings proved safe for the disgruntled thief. A  
  
wounded leg presented a cut so finely sliced that it appeared as if a perfect line of blood had been  
  
whipped onto his leg by the wind. Garrett wondered what type of arrow Cerris had used. He had  
  
skill with the bow indeed. The novice thief who had been killed embodied the sprinting speed of  
  
a true runner, yet Cerris was not only able to hit him with a three second head start, but did so  
  
through a closed door in view. Garrett felt as if the only thing that had saved his life were the  
  
three flash bombs dispersed at the right time, unbalancing Cerris's aim just enough for a miss.   
  
Garrett wished he had taken a better look at the mysterious man who he would not recognize if  
  
he were to see him in a crowd. Unlike Garrett, however, the strange man seemed to know  
  
exactly who he was and that seemed to prove a big problem. The wounded thief needed answers  
  
quickly of Cerris the Huntsman. More times than others, knowledge proved to be the most  
  
useful tool one could posses. But one thing was for sure: Garrett had a bounty on his head.  
  
  
  
After scouting the streets below and moving from rooftop to rooftop ever so often, Garrett  
  
knew he would have to stop by his apartment for supplies and money. A paranoid mist clouded  
  
the thief's usual sureness and every once in a while he would look behind him. Every strange  
  
sound from afar could be that of a silent assassin, arching his bow in secrecy on a balcony.   
  
Garrett had faith in his abilities of stealth and continued on a familiar rout home which provided  
  
deep shadows.   
  
  
  
The cautious thief reached his apartment and slowly entered as if he was robbing his own  
  
room. The air was still as death and the darkness shrouded the halls of the apartment. Garrett  
  
grabbed for his pick locks when he reached his door. A true thief never believes he is good  
  
enough at what he does. Perfection was that of impossible to retain but should always be reached  
  
for no matter how far away. The thief believed in pick locking any lock, even his own, to  
  
improve his time in doing so. Sometimes he could be in a lighted hall and come across a locked  
  
door with a guard approaching. To be able to open a locked door even in half a second faster  
  
could mean the difference between getting caught and making it alive for another day. Garrett  
  
picked his lock in minimal timing and entered slowly and quietly, as if somehow the assassin had  
  
outrun the thief to his room.   
  
After much observation, Garrett confirmed his aloneness. Not lighting the candle stick on the  
  
nearby table, Garrett waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness of the room. Soon the thief  
  
found his closet. Opening the door carefully, Garrett knelt down to raise the loose plywood  
  
boards inside. One by one, each were stacked on the side until enough were out of the way.   
  
Inside were most of Garrett's wealth and some supplies. His hand reached for five hundred  
  
dollars worth of gold as well as more supplies in case he would run into any unwelcome  
  
assassins. The night was still young and Garrett needed to visit a reliable source for information  
  
on his assassin. Garrett did not like asking for information from others but the sources he  
  
received from him were always accurate, whether it was a tip or a map. Garrett knew he was still  
  
at his joint not far from the apartment. Quickly cleaning his wound, Garrett, fluffed the pillow  
  
under the sheets to leave a humanistic lump; just another routine safety measure Garrett  
  
implemented before he left. Holding onto the rope from his window, he left his room to leave  
  
from a different place where he came in to make sure he could not be tailed. Once the thief  
  
climbed down the rope, he melted into the shadows that were ever so abundant at this time at  
  
night. The cold air blew through allies of the streets and a rat now and then would scurry  
  
across the littered asphalt from buildings that neglected maintenance. When the thief came to a  
  
wall with a wooden sliding window out in a dark ally, he knocked on it.  
  
"State your purpose," a man said from behind the wooden wall.  
  
"I seek information on a bounty huntsman," Garrett replied as he looked down the musty ally  
  
and then back to the closed wooden sliding window. A body guard stood nearby, watching to see  
  
if Garrett would cause problems for the man behind the wooden wall.   
  
A slight pause. "Cerris is a dangerous man. I can supply you information tomorrow," the  
  
man said. "It will take time to retrieve this information,"  
  
Garrett looked both ways in the ally again, then replied, "Done. I will return here tomorrow  
  
at the same time," Garrett whispered. Garrett slowly walked out of the ally and zigzagged  
  
throughout the streets and decided to stay at the local inn for the night.  
  
Garrett slept for a few hours and then stayed awake until it grew dark once again. Cerris  
  
puzzled Garrett. Obviously Cerris was paid off to assassinate Garrett but who would that be?   
  
Garrett knew numerous people who would want him dead. Unless Cerris just wanted to hunt  
  
Garrett for the pure pleasure in the urban hunt. Nevertheless, Garrett needed to get rid of Cerris  
  
who threatened his area. Garrett had studied the city all too well to just leave. Garrett had no  
  
plans in leaving any time soon.   
  
"Garrett the Master Thief versus Cerris the Bounty huntsman," Garrett thought to himself.   
  
This would indeed be a challenge. Garrett had fought against deadly foes before but Cerris had  
  
been the only enemy to spot him out, to be one step ahead of him and sometimes even two steps  
  
ahead of him.   
  
Garrett understood Cerris was not like any enemy before. He spotted Garrett out when he  
  
was in the underground gambling network where he was very well hidden. Every move Cerris  
  
dealt proved to be at its maximum effect. Garrett did not want to admit his hunch, but it was as if  
  
Cerris was holding back his true potential back in the gambling room.   
  
Garrett had been walking through the streets as the last of the light in the sky became  
  
engulfed in blackness. Garrett needed to obtain the information quick and then figure out how to  
  
get rid of Cerris. Garrett looked around him as he walked in the same ally and headed toward the  
  
wooden window. As he walked, he noticed how empty the area was. No one was in sight. As  
  
Garrett walked next to the wooden wall, he raised his hand to knock but noticed the wooden  
  
sliding window slightly opened.   
  
Garrett suddenly realized what had happened and he became increasingly tense. Garrett  
  
retracted back his hand from knocking and started to run back up the dark ally. Behind the  
  
wooden sliding window, Cerris peered out of the thin crevice, bow arched from behind the  
  
wooden wall. The always present body guard lay behind a trash can not far from where he used  
  
to watch over the wooden wall, his throat slit deeply by a hunting knife. The man that was  
  
suppose to supply Garrett information laid behind the wall, strangled to death when Cerris forced  
  
opened the sliding window.   
  
Garrett had noticed these differences just in time. Surly Cerris would have taken Garrett  
  
down easily from behind the wooden wall. As Garrett ran through the streets, he looked behind  
  
him back towards the ally. It was quite, like it had been before. Garrett was alone. 


	5. Lost Red Angel

CHAPTER 5  
  
Lost Red Angel  
  
"I am the wisest man alive,"  
  
Proclaimed the elder.   
  
"for I know one thing,  
  
and that is that I know nothing."  
  
---------Socrates  
  
*************************************************  
  
The night sky was a dark royal purple, crying over the stone and metal, respecting the glow of  
  
the gleaming moon which generated countless still shadows. In the wrinkles of the dark city,  
  
however, ran one shadow awry. It was tired and consistently on the move. Running from a dark  
  
light that would extinguish its existence and swallow it whole.   
  
Garrett stopped to catch his breath. He looked behind him and then merged with his  
  
surroundings, pressing against a brick wall. Garrett put his hand out to catch the beads of water  
  
that fell from the sky. He drank some of the ice cold water to reduce the steam that came out  
  
from his heaving breaths. Not one thing wrong could Garrett afford, not one.  
  
"I can see you," a faint ghostly voice remarked.   
  
Garrett's heart began to beat as he looked up towards the voice. But it was a little girl. She  
  
stood in the rain as if a strong flame, she was dressed in a red dress, a rag doll placed firmly  
  
under her arm. Her face was a pale. A cherubic beauty, as white as the moon that night. Her  
  
pureness was only matched by her innocence.   
  
Garrett was amazed that such an innocent creature existed in the city he had grown up in that  
  
was nothing but corrupt law and underground lords. Pausing, as if the girl would say something  
  
else, Garrett received no more conversation from the little girl in red.   
  
"Who may you be?" Garrett asked, peering left and right to see if anyone else was around.  
  
The girl stood there, showing no emotion. No flicker to his question. Garrett did not like  
  
talking to the girl, especially when he wanted to be unnoticed. But the girl was perplexing.   
  
"Are you lost, little girl?" the thief asked. The girl held onto her rag doll closely, then looked  
  
down the ally.   
  
"He," she said.   
  
Garrett glanced towards the direction the girl in red peered at.  
  
"He can see you too,"   
  
Garrett could not see anything in the darkness of the ally. He looked back towards the girl  
  
but she was gone. Garrett looked around feverishly but the girl in red had vanished. As Garrett  
  
looked around, he saw a gleam for a slight moment. The rain beat against the pavement loudly  
  
and Garrett focused on his vision. Using his mechanized eye, he zoomed towards the strange  
  
gleam.   
  
Garrett saw that the gleam was that of a metal object. Garrett did not want to take a chance  
  
and stay where he was, though he thought he was well hidden. Garrett suspected the gleam was  
  
of one of Cerris's metal arrows, being arched and aimed from the building window at the end of  
  
the ally. Garrett crept toward a sewer hatch next to him and slid in.  
  
Not far away, Cerris indeed was there in the window as Garrett saw his face and bow when a  
  
stroke of lightning cast itself nearby. Garrett closed the hatch above him and continued to run  
  
down the hallways of the flooding sewers.  
  
How did he find him? Was Garrett not hidden well enough? Who was the girl? Garrett  
  
mocked himself for being seen by the small girl in red. How was she able to see him? But the  
  
girl had helped him. Or did she lead Cerris to him? Garrett massaged his head as he ran through  
  
the swift waters as he felt an ache creep into his head. The girl was no ordinary girl. Garrett  
  
knew of no one who would walk the streets at night. Let alone a girl as innocent as herself. Yet  
  
she showed no fear. Garrett didn't know what was going on.   
  
"Knowledge is the most useful tool a thief can have?" Garrett muttered to himself as he  
  
fought against a current in the sewer. "Then why don't I have this tool when I need it the most." 


End file.
